art with the City of Toronto

1: lived experience ODSP recipient claude wittmann and fellow 17 Paton Road neighbours are ordered to vacate their building by the City in march 2020. claude's search ended 6 long months later, fortunately with housing, but it could have ended way earlier and better with an RGI unit. _____________________________ 2: deputation deputation at Planning and Housing Committee (PHC) which leads Deputy Mayor Ana Bailao to pass a motion (item 7). the motion triggers a review of all housing allowance programs. the review is/was the responsibility of Shelter, Support and Housing Administration (SSHA), and it is/was conducted by consultant Joy Connelly. _____________________________ 3: research what are housing allowances (HA), COHB and TTHAP? how do they compare with rent-geared-to-income (RGI)? by claude wittmann and consultant Simon Beck context of housing crisis slides by policy analyst John Stapleton and collaborators context of workfare "An insiders' grim portrait of life on social assistance in Ontario" by claude wittmann and Trevor Manson _____________________________ 4: the action housing allowances and benefits are bad neo-liberal housing tools that largely do not compare with the housing security of rent-geared-to-income (RGI) social housing. but, in the current Toronto housing crisis, we desperately need them with a process that is not traumatizing as it is now. they need to be fixed. this action asked that all Toronto housing allowance programs be overhauled following a proposed plan for overhaul that was initially put together by claude wittmann, housing advocates working and tenants from 17 Paton Road who were forced to relocate, and then endorsed by a list of organizations working closely with homeless individuals. this action also asked that housing allowances and benefits be considered only as stop-gap measures and that social housing be built again. we need publically owned social housing. 4a: the story first, who is the 17 Paton Road Focus Group? the 17 Paton Road Focus Group consists of 4 ex-residents among the 20 tenants of 17 Paton Road who were ordered by the City of Toronto to vacate their building just at the start of the pandemic. their landlords had been very slow and inconsistent with bringing the building up to the Fire and Building Code while the tenants were trying to negotiate with them and help from Deputy Mayor and Councillor Ana Bailao that they transfer ownership to the Parkdale Neighbourhood Land Trust (PNLT). suddenly in March 2020, the City lost patience and sent their order to vacate. a lot of tenants went through acute stress, not only with their housing search but also with their application to the Toronto Transitional Housing Allowance Program (TTHAP). There was no transparency, inconsistent information, sometimes contradictory, and especially the need to find a place and sign a lease before knowing if and how much housing allowance one could possibly get. it was a nightmare that Deputy Mayor and Councillor Bailao regularly witnessed and supported them through. still, the search was difficult and the stress was ridiculous. advocacy directed to City Councillor and officials when housing was finally secured, claude wittmann shared a diagram representing his lived experience (see 1 above) with Councillor Bailao and Shelter, Support and Housing Administration (SSHA) managers Maria Varlokostas and Richard Marshall. he collaborated with other housing advocates to put together a proposed plan for necessary changes and collect endorsements from organizations closely involved with houseless people. claude also presented a deputation at the Planning and Housing Committee (PHC) (see 2 above) which led Councillor Bailao to trigger a review, from clients' experience, of all provincially administrated housing allowances (see 2 above). Councillor triggers review and puts it in the hands of SSHA the review started in January with SSHA's request that the 17 Paton Road Focus Group meet with consultant Joy Connelly to discuss their lived experience. the 17 Paton Road Focus Group accepted on the condition that the meeting would focus on the endorsed plan for changes and that SSHA consults with houseless people after that. 17 Paton Road Focus Group loses trust in SSHA up until the end of spring 2021, the City was in a collaborative spirit with the 17 Paton Road Focus Group, but then shifted to another worrisome mode. SSHA refused to grant the 17 Paton Road Focus Group the opportunity to review what Joy Connelly's had written about their January 2021 meeting, this despite a Shared Understanding that was explicitly meant to allow for that. SSHA also decided to not do any other consultations, something that was unfair to all those struggling with housing right now. instead they asked Joy to draft her final report from a series of reports (see list below) and to hand it in in November 2021. because the reports had on very little input from lived experience on the housing allowance process, this meant that we could arrive at only minor changes and possibly even at damaging ones. 17 Paton Road Focus Group write to PHC members that they have no resources to continue fighting for changes at this point, it was clear that continuing to work towards the proposal plan would require way more resources than they had. most of them were still dealing with the trauma of their relocation and enormous work to reconnect to their art practice and income generation. they sent their analysis of SSHA's review to all PHC members and announced that they could not continue to volunteer towards the changes they had hoped for. coordinator of the action enters 2nd housing crisis as the coordinator of this action, claude wittmann had hoped to at least be able to remind SSHA that the 17 Paton Road Focus Group was supposed to be copied on all communications regarding the review and to receive the final copy, to read it and prepare a deputation to comment on it. this did not happen. claude's health spiralled down in October, due to noise overload in his apartment and he entered into his 2nd housing crisis in less than 2 years. he has lost abilities in this process and he is not sure he can even come back to advocacy. 4b: the documents the proposed plan for overhaul: 3 pager of requests, integrated vision and endorsements the consultant's primary materials to write her final review, with a deadline of November 2021: Report to SSHA by consultant Joy Connelly, about her meeting with the 17 Paton Road Focus Group by Joy Connelly and Jamilla Mohamud (2021) This report was supposed to reflect the proposal plan for overhaul (see above), but it does not. The 17 Paton Road Focus group felt betrayed and addressed this in their review of Joy Connelly's report (see just below). Review of Joy Connelly's report on their meeting by 17 Paton Road Focus Group (2021) Coordinated Access to Housing and Supports Evaluation: Final Evaluation Report by Joy Connelly and Emily Paradis (2019) Tenant Relocation Support Services Program: Final Evaluation Report by Emily Paradis and Joy Connelly (2018) A Pathway Out of Poverty: The City of Toronto's Housing Allowance Program - A Review by SHS Consulting (2018)